Controlling the order in which jobs are printed

One of the enhancements implemented in FFC v4 SP2 is the ability to retain job sequence during print submission. This new functionality (which is part of the Output Management module) along with DFE functionality to print jobs in the sequence in which they are received enables printing of jobs based on the sequence that's defined either during submission to FreeFlow Core or when collecting jobs within FreeFlow Core.

Printing jobs in a defined sequence requires use of a FFCore "job group". Job groups are collections of jobs that are related to each other. In the Job Management UI job groups appear as a job with a collection of jobs

Nominally, FreeFlow Core sends jobs to the DFE in parallel. As such, smaller jobs will reach the printer sooner than larger jobs so the sequence defined in the workflow will not be retained as jobs are submitted to the DFE.

When the Collect Job Documents option is enabled on the Print component, jobs are submitted to the DFE based serially based on their sequence within the job group. This option (which is part of the Output Management module) is enabled by selecting the Collect Job Documents option in the Print preset in the workflow

Once that's enabled jobs within a job group are printed in the expected sequence. Additionally, while printing a job group FreeFlow Core will ensure that no other jobs are submitted to that DFE. This will ensure all jobs in the job group are contiguously submitted to the DFE before any other jobs in any other workflows are submitted to the DFE. Using this functionality along with the DFE functionality to ensure jobs are printed in the sequence in which they are received enables control over the order in which jobs are printed.

The sequence for printing may be defined via:

MAX: The order in which jobs are listed in the manifest

HF: Alphabetically by name for documents in a Zip file

JMF: The order in which files are listed in the JDF file

Submit Job UI: The order in which files are listed in the submit job UI

Collect: The sequence in which files are collected in Collect

Split: The workflow after Split. (note - this may deviate from the order in the FFCore UI)

Split for jobs in a job group: The previous order in the job group followed by the workflow structure Split. (note - this may deviate from the order in the FFCore UI)

One important caveat: DFE queues used for printing with the Collect Job Documents option enabled must only be used in one Printer Destination. This printer destination may be used in multiple presets and the presets may be used in multiple workflows but FFCore should only have a single Printer Destination for a queue that's used for printing with the Collect Job Documents option enabled.